text: Antiporters use the mechanism of cotransport (coupling the movement of one ion or molecule down its concentration gradient with the transport of another ion or molecule up its concentration gradient), to move the ions and molecule in opposite directions. In this situation one of the ions will move from the exoplasmic space into the cytoplasmic space while the other ion will move from the cytoplasmic space into the exoplasmic space. An example of an antiporter is the sodium-calcium exchanger. The sodium-calcium exchanger functions to remove excess calcium from the cytoplasmic space into the exoplasmic space against its concentration gradient by coupling its transport with the transport of sodium from the exoplasmic space down its concentration gradient (established by the active transport of sodium out of the cell by the sodium-potassium pump) into the cytoplasmic space. The sodium-calcium exchanger exchanges 3 sodium ions for 1 calcium ion and represents a cation antiporter.
  Cells also contain anion antiporters such as the Band 3 (or AE1) anion transport protein. This cotransporter is an important integral protein in mammalian erythrocytes and moves chloride ion and bicarbonate ion in a one-to-one ratio across the plasma membrane based only on the concentration gradient of the two ions. The AE1 antiporter is essential in the removal of carbon dioxide waste that is converted to bicarbonate inside the erythrocyte.